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Gatling Soldier
'''Gatling Soldiers '''are a special unit class in Valkyria Chronicles 3 that are used by the Empire and Calamity Raven. Gatling Soldiers are giant, armored soldiers equipped with a powerful gatling gun for offense, and a large shield for defense. Gatling soldiers are balanced to cause massive damage to player units by either attacking directly, or by interception fire. They are always, no matter the level of their allies, armed with the 16-shot ZM GMG-1 (with a 42 anti-personnel rating and 256 anti-armor rating). This makes them nigh-inapproachable from the front for most Gallian units except tanks and armored techs, while allowing them to shred even the Nameless Tank with a few rear/radiator shots. Nevertheless, there are a few strategies available to take them down before them become too much of a nightmare to deal with. Strategy Gatling Soldiers can be very hard to defeat if not handled correctly. Approaching them from the front is definitely not an option since their interception fire will down a unit in a matter of seconds. Their attack range is very far so unless you are using an armored tech, a frontal assault will almost always fail. Their shields also make things difficult since it covers most of their body, on top of making them nigh-invincible once these shields are raised. On top of that, their machine guns can make mincemeat out of even the heaviest of APCs, further reducing options to take them down. There are a number of ways to take on gatling soldiers, ranging from killing them with sniper fire, double/triple-tapping them with vehicle flamethrowers, or using gunner interception fire with high anti-armor ratings. The easiest, fastest, but most risky way to kill a G.soldier is by sniper fire from a faraway distance. Since most of their body will be protected, it is recommended to headshot them. In order to kill them in one turn, however, you will need to equip your sniper with a 3-shot sniper rifle since one headshot alone will not be enough to bring down a G.soldier. Furthermore, it is recommended that you bait their interception fire away from the sniper with high-defense units, such as with the Nameless Tank with a tank frame or an Armored Tech, so that they are facing away from the sniper; they have a nasty habit of raising their shields to evade frontal and side sniper shots and then returning fire over long range. Only by turning them can you prevent them from dodging in this manner. Another way to deal with gatling soldiers - while a little more tedious, but more reliable - is to use a vehicle flamethrower to bypass Gatling Soldier shields. If you are wiling to sacrifice your vehicle's cannon/30 or 40 shot Machine Gun for a flamethrower these soldiers can safely be mowed down with 1-3 sprays from the vehicle mounted flamethrower, as flamethrowers are lethal against non-tank armored targets, such as MG-Turrets, Anti-Tank Bunkers, and yes, Gatling Soldier Shields. Thus, even in situations where Gatling Soldiers raise their shields to protect themselves, they will still be heavily damaged, while still not being able to return fire as they would after infantry attacks. Another way to defend your base from Gatling soldiers, once one completes a few DLC missions or reaches the higher levels of VC3, is to deploy a gunner under cover, equipped with a long-range, high-anti-armor machine gun (such as the Held, Alvitr, or Hurricane-mk2) and position them so that they are capable of intercepting the Gatling soldier as they (the Gatling Soldiers) charge in. Although their shields make them difficult to hit and damage, Gatling soldier shields can be penetrated with high anti-armor power machine guns, and that is where gunners come in handy. Gatling soldiers like to charge into close range to attack bases and your units, and thus the ridiculous interception output of defending gunners (60 bullets per light-machine gun volley!) quickly grind down Gatling Soldiers' health. Furthermore, as long as you deploy that gunner under cover, they are more likely to survive an assault from a Gatling Soldier at close range and then return fire. Because the Gatling Soldier has closed the distance, even the wide volleys of a gunner's counter-fire are likely to get enough hits to down the Gatling Soldier after intercepting them. Cheesing Strategy If one is willing to abuse VC3's game mechanics to cheese a win, there are ways one can bypass or even exploit the Gatling Soldier to eke out a win. After you unlock the Valkyria SP power after Chapter 11, you can direct their interception fire to destroy other imperial units (a tactic also frequently abused with Alicia in the expert skirmishes of the Gallian Crossfire mod). Furthermore, it is possible, with good button timing, to move past them without the G. Soldier firing even a single shot. This is because their attacking animation - aiming their gatling gun - takes much longer to complete and reverse than the time a unit can enter/leave "action mode" and then move forward. If you're fast enough, one can enter action mode, leave action mode, and then move approximately two steps forward before the G. Soldier can start interception fire. Rinse and repeat, and one can get past them without a single shot of interception. Trivia *Gatling Soldiers use the same character model as the V2 in Valkyria Chronicles II, albeit with a gatling gun on their arm in lieu of a particle beam. This is why their attacking animation is so long. *With their common appearance on the battlefield and sheer ridiculous lethality, it's reasonable to call Gatling Soldiers THE Valkyrian Demonic Spider Category:Units Category:Calamity Raven Category:Autocratic East Europan Imperial Alliance